Lev Polugaevsky

In 1958 there was a brilliant attacking chess game between Lev Polugaevsky and Rashid Nezhmetdinov played in a tournament held in Sochi, Russia. Nezhmetdinov chose the Old Indian Defense, Ukrainian variation and quickly obtained a slight lead in time when comparing the kingside developments. Polugaevsky’s decision to try and quickly negate Nezhmetdinov’s kingside fianchettoed bishop with 6.Qd2 and a subsequent/timely b3,Bb2, quite possibly influenced the coordination of Polugaevsky’s kingside minor pieces. Namely the kingside knight opted for e2 instead of f3. Nezhmetdinov’s queen, as a result, found a strong and aggressive post on h4 which eventually forced many concessions in the white camp. This impacted Polugaevsky, who chose a king walk towards the center despite all but two pawns of Nezhmetdinov’s entire army remaining on board. This set the stage for a brilliant masterpiece of attacking chess where a precise depth of calculation and an intuiative feel for resulting positions reigned supreme. It is no wonder so many have it pegged, “Nezhmetdinov’s Immortal”.